アジア学院

アジア学院（Asian Rural Institute／ARI）は、栃木県那須塩原市にある、50年以上の歴史をもつ国際人材育成機関です。
「農村の自立には地元リーダーの育成が不可欠」という理念のもと、飢餓や貧困、差別、ジェンダー格差、環境破壊、紛争などの課題に立ち向かう、農村コミュニティリーダーを育ててきました。
全寮制のキャンパスには毎年約15カ国から学生・ボランティアが集い、授業も生活も英語で行われます。有機農場に囲まれた自然豊かな環境で、「共に生きるために」をモットーとした学びが実践されています。

【このプロジェクトで実現したいこと】
アジア学院は、1973年の創立以来、アジア、アフリカ、中南米等の「農村コミュニティリーダー」が集い、リーダーシップ研修を行っている学校です。
「農村の自立には現地のリーダーの育成が不可欠」という理念のもと、飢餓や貧困、差別、気候変動、紛争、ジェンダー格差など、様々な課題に立ち向かう草の根NGO等で働く次世代リーダーたちを栃木県那須塩原市のキャンパスに招き、農的な共同生活をベースに、課題解決と持続可能な開発を担うための研修を行っています。

アジア学院では、4月から12月の9ヶ月間にわたる研修の集大成として、毎年11月に「西日本研修」を行ってきました。
マイクロバスで12日間かけて往復3,000㎞を巡り、水俣、広島、大阪などを訪ね、「痛みと再生の歴史」を学ぶ旅です。この体験は、学生たちが「これは、私の国で起きていることだ」と、開発の負の側面を自覚し、持続可能な開発とリーダーの役割を考える上での貴重な学びの機会となっています。

しかし今年、見込んでいた助成金が採択されず、さらに昨今の物価高騰・円安が重なり、いつにも増して皆様の助けを必要としている状況です。
世界中が分断や争いに揺れる今だからこそ、「隣人とやさしく生きるリーダー」を育てたい。
農村コミュニティリーダー22名の学びの機会を守るため、どうか皆様のお力をお貸しください。

【ご寄付の使い道】
今回のクラウドファンディングでは、必要経費約200万円のうち、交通費100万円を目標金額として挑戦します。
交通費（マイクロバス・フェリー等） 約100万円
宿泊費・食費 約100万円
研修費（施設利用料・講師謝礼等） 約20万円

世界の農村コミュニティリーダー22名に「痛みと再生」を学ぶチャンスを！あなたの寄付が隣人とやさしく生きる世界を作ります。

「学生1人が1日、現場へと向かう燃料代」

「3,000kmの道のりを支える安全なインフラ費用」

「学生1人分の全行程（3,000km）の高速道路料金」

「学生1人分の夜間フェリー移動＆温かい朝食サポート」

「学びの移動拠点・マイクロバスのレンタル費用（約1日分）」

「学生1名が西日本研修（3,000km）を走り切る交通費一式」

「学びの場をつなぐマイクロバスレンタル費用の4分の1」

"What We Want to Achieve with This Project"

Since its founding in 1973, Asian Rural Institute (ARI) has been a training school where "rural community leaders" from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other regions gather to build leadership skills.

Guided by the principle that "cultivating local leaders is essential for rural self-reliance," we invite next-generation leaders working in grassroots NGOs—tackling challenges like hunger, poverty, discrimination, climate change, conflict, and gender inequality—to our campus in Nasushiobara City, Tochigi Prefecture. Through a community lifestyle centered around agriculture, we train them to drive problem-solving and sustainable development.

As the culmination of their nine-month training program (April to December), ARI has conducted the "West Japan Study Tour" every November.

Over 12 days, Participants travel 3,000 km round-trip in a minibus, visiting locations such as Minamata, Hiroshima, and Osaka to learn about "the history of pain and rebirth." This experience offers an invaluable learning opportunity where Participants realize, "This is happening in my country too," prompting them to recognize the negative side effects of development and reflect deeply on sustainable development and their role as leaders.

However, this year, our anticipated grant application was not selected. Combined with recent inflation, rising prices, and the weak yen, we find ourselves needing your help more than ever.

In a world shaken by division and conflict, we want to nurture "leaders who live compassionately with their neighbors." To safeguard this learning opportunity for these 22 rural community leaders, please lend us your support.

Give 22 Rural Community Leaders from Around the World a Chance to Learn from "Pain and Rebirth"!

"Fuel for 1 Student to Travel 1 Day to the Field"

"Safe Infrastructure Support for the 3,000 km Journey"

"Highway Tolls for 1 Participant across the Entire 3,000 km Journey"

"Overnight Ferry & Warm Breakfast Support for 1 Participant"

"Microbus Rental Fee for 1 Day (A Mobile Learning Hub)"

"Full Travel Expenses for 1 Participant to Complete the Western Japan Study Tour (3,000 km)"

"1/4 of the Microbus Rental Cost Connecting Learning Sites Across Western Japan"

Greetings, everyone — thank you, as always, for your warm support!One week has passed since we launched our Western Japan Study Tour crowdfunding campaign, &quot;Living Kindly with Neighbors,&quot; and we have already surpassed ¥1.91 million in total support from 130 generous donors. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.Today, August 9th, marks 81 years since the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.On August 6th, the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, we shared an update about Thomas Mathew, who graduated from ARI in 1988. Hearing testimonies in Hiroshima during his own Western Japan Study Tour changed the course of his life — he went on to bring hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) to India for the first time, produce a documentary on nuclear testing, and carry the baton of peace forward into the world.(Read the full story here: <a href="https://syncable.biz/en/campaign/10070/report/14121#campaign-tabs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://syncable.biz/en/campaign/10070/report/14121#campaign-tabs</a>)At ARI&#39;s Opening Ceremony in 2023, the year we celebrated our 50th anniversary, Mr. Steven Leeper, former Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, joined us as a guest and left us with these words:<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/syncable-app/upload/3effcab6-56a2-4291-9ed0-6bbb00207801.jpg" alt="Steven Leeper, Opening Ceremony 2023">&quot;I love ARI with all my heart. I have never seen a place like this — an organization of this size that has achieved such complete self-sufficiency simply doesn&#39;t exist elsewhere. We live today in a civilization of power, but the atomic bomb taught us that violence can no longer resolve our conflicts. Unless we graduate into a civilization of love, humanity has no future. ARI embodies that graduation — it is a model unlike any other in the world.&quot;ARI advocates for a &quot;peace from soil,&quot; beginning right where we stand. Practicing peace, each of us individually, is never an easy thing.This campaign&#39;s theme is &quot;Living Kindly with Neighbors.&quot; We believe that the only way to change the world is by changing ourselves.When you first encounter ARI, it might feel like watching a vivid documentary in a movie theater. The diversity brought by participants from Asia and Africa, and volunteers and interns from places like the United States and Germany, along with the way our rural community leaders confront the world&#39;s social issues, all live and breathe, viscerally, within this community.But I believe ARI&#39;s real strength lies in going beyond that. Whether you like it or not, it asks something of you — of your own self.For our participants, learning changes who they are, changes the regions where they live, and that learning is passed on, changing their communities in turn. Twenty-two people standing at the very front line of the world&#39;s social challenges — sitting together at the same table, sharing a meal. That is ARI.Once you see that, it is no longer someone else&#39;s story. It isn&#39;t a &quot;kind world where someone else does something for you&quot; — instead, it presses in on you with real urgency: for the world to change, you yourself must change.When you change yourself to live kindly with your neighbors, the world changes. At ARI, the world comes pressing toward you. You are asked to change yourself, and it is asked of you as your own personal matter. It takes real energy.For those of you who hear the stories of our Western Japan Study Tour participants and feel the challenges of distant countries as your own, we believe that giving is not simply a means of supporting us — it is also an opportunity for you, our supporters, to newly encounter the world yourselves.We will continue our challenge toward the Next Goal of ¥2.2 million through September 30th (Wednesday). We are deeply grateful to be able to deliver this learning opportunity together with all of you.

[Update] One Week In, We've Surpassed ¥1.91 Million — Reflecting on the Anniversary of the Nagasaki Bombing

Eighty-one years have passed since the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.Today, we’d like to share a message from Mr. Thomas Mathew, a graduate of ARI from India, who visited Hiroshima during the WJST in 1988—an experience that profoundly influenced the rest of his life.&quot;Originally, my expectations for ARI were to experience life in Japan and to acquire various skills to lead rural communities in my homeland, India. Peace was not an immediate priority for me. However, during the WJST at the Hiroshima YMCA, I watched footage portraying the dreadful reality of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I listened to the firsthand testimonies of the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors). Their stories deeply touched my heart.At the time, I took great pride in being a citizen of India, a nuclear-armed nation (India conducted its first nuclear test on May 18, 1974). That sense of pride vanished in an instant in Hiroshima, and I became determined to convey the message of peace from Hiroshima and Nagasaki wherever I went.In August 1990, the first-ever visit of hibakusha to India was realized. We traveled extensively across India, meeting with thousands of students and peace activists, participating in media interviews, and engaging with political and religious leaders. Furthermore, I produced a documentary on the reality of India’s nuclear tests conducted in May 1998. This drew international attention, and I was invited to present it at the Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999. There, I met five Nobel Peace Prize laureates and conveyed to them the terrifying reality of India&#39;s nuclear testing.ARI ignited my inner passion for world peace and gave me the strength to transform it into a driving force for tirelessly pursuing a peaceful and just world.&quot;🚌Please support us to make the Western Japan Study Tour a reality!<a href="https://syncable.biz/campaign/10070" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Give 22 Rural Community Leaders from Around the World a Chance to Learn from &quot;Pain and Rebirth&quot;!</a><a href="https://syncable.biz/campaign/9823" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">世界の農村コミュニティリーダー22名に「痛みと再生」を学ぶチャンスを！あなたの寄付が隣人とやさしく生きる世界を作ります。</a><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/syncable-app/upload/6c7cd148-17e9-4e82-b1f8-41293565a360.jpg">

【Passing the Baton of Peace to the World: Western Japan Study Tour (WJST) at Hiroshima】

[The True Servant Leader: Western Japan Study Tour (WJST) at Seirei Social Welfare Community in Hamamatsu]Our crowdfunding campaign to realize the WJST has finally begun!We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for everyone’s enthusiastic support from the very first day.Now, the National High School Baseball Championship at Koshien begins today. Shizuoka&#39;s representative, Seirei Christopher High School, is actually one of the places ARI visits during the WJST.Today, the Seirei Group supports the lives of many citizens in western Shizuoka, spanning fields from healthcare and welfare to education. However, its origins lie in accepting tuberculosis patients who were often isolated from society. Every year, ARI participants visit the Seirei History Museum to learn what it truly means to be a servant leader through the life and words of the founder, Mr. Tamotsu Hasegawa, who dedicated his life to serving others and responding to the needs of the community.Last year, one participant shared this reflection:&quot;I am used to hearing “do your best to serve while you are living (in this life)” but today I learned from Mr. Hasegawa’s act of donating his body to the medical school for students to learn from, that it is possible to serve even after passing away. &quot;The light of God is falling Upon life&#39;s common way;The Master&#39;s voice still calling, &quot;Come, walk with Me today&quot;;No duty can seem lowly to him who lives with Thee,And all of life grows holy, O Christ of Galilee!Hymn 393, which serves as the school song for Seirei Christopher High School and echoes across Koshien Stadium, perfectly embodies the spirit of a true servant leader.🚌Please support us to make the Western Japan Study Tour a reality!<a href="https://syncable.biz/campaign/10070" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Give 22 Rural Community Leaders from Around the World a Chance to Learn from &quot;Pain and Rebirth&quot;!</a><a href="https://syncable.biz/campaign/9823" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">世界の農村コミュニティリーダー22名に「痛みと再生」を学ぶチャンスを！あなたの寄付が隣人とやさしく生きる世界を作ります。</a><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/syncable-app/upload/4d762bbd-d4a2-41e4-9bdf-a1eddae3f907.jpg"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/syncable-app/upload/f13a19fe-abb1-42f0-b3f2-d29e236f46fe.jpg">

【The True Servant Leader: Western Japan Study Tour (WJST) at Seirei Social Welfare Community in Hamamatsu】

Thank you as always for your warm support!As we continue our challenge toward the Next Goal of 2.2 million yen, today we would like to introduce the &quot;Japanese Self-Introduction Videos of Our Participants,&quot; currently being released on our official SNS channels (Instagram and Facebook).This video initiative was created not only to convey the depth and value of learning through the &quot;Western Japan Study Tour&quot; scheduled for November, but also to serve as an &quot;entry point&quot; for you to discover what kind of impact the participants studying at Asian Rural Institute (ARI) will bring to their home countries and the world after returning home.The 22 participants gathering from Asia, Africa, and Latin America are leaders who have stood on the front lines of challenges such as food insecurity, poverty, and environmental degradation in their respective communities, working to support their people.Having been in Japan for about four months, devoting themselves to daily learning and farm work, they share—to the best of their ability in Japanese—their activities back home and their hopes for the Western Japan Study Tour.By connecting with the &quot;faces&quot; and &quot;thoughts&quot; of the leaders supported by your generosity, we hope you feel a little closer to the real-world challenges they face around the globe.Please listen to the honest, heartfelt words of our participants on our official SNS!🎥 Watch the videos here (Official SNS):<ul><li>Instagram: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Finstagram.com%2Fasian_rural_institute%2F&amp;authuser=3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">instagram.com/asian_rural_institute/</a></li><li>Facebook: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Ffacebook.com%2FAsian.Rural.Institute&amp;authuser=3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">facebook.com/Asian.Rural.Institute</a></li></ul>We humbly ask for your continued warm support and help in sharing this campaign until the final day on September 30!